Lost about 50% of podcasts between June 17 and June 18, 2015

Question

Lost about 50% of podcasts between June 17 and June 18, 2015

I went to sync an iPod recently and was told I couldn't sync because some of the podcasts were not on my computer. Looking at the Podcasts folder inside the iTunes Music folder I see that the podcasts files themselves are missing!

Using Time Machine, I determined that the files disappeared between June 17 and June 18 of this year.

Using Time Machine, I restored the podcast files and folders and restored the iTunes.itl to June 17.

When I reopened iTunes, very briefly the podcast window showed all the old podcasts and then flashed to the shorter list. Oddly, going back to the Podcasts folder I see that iTunes deleted the files and folders I had just restored!

Something else I noticed was that the iTunes Music Library.xml file is NOT in any Time Machine backup! Presumably it was created only today, though I'm not sure that makes sense. I examined that file with TextWrangler and can see that the file does NOT contain all the episodes of the missing podcasts, though it does contain SOME episodes of the missing podcasts.

There was NOT an upgrade to iTunes that happened between June 17 and June 18. On both days my system had iTunes 12.1.2 (but now has 12.2.0), so I don't think it was a software upgrade that caused the problem.

I don't really care WHY this happened, but how do I restore my iTunes library (including podcasts) in a way that will "stick"?

Thank you for any help you can be.

Posted on Jul 4, 2015 2:52 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Jul 4, 2015 3:06 PM in response to Robert Camner

As a followup, I found this thread: podcasts gone after iTunes 11.1 update which suggested unchecking "Sync Podcast subscriptions and settings" in iTunes Prefs before restoring. I tried that, but that did not work. What I noticed that was upon restoring the missing podcast files and restoring the iTunes Library.itl file from June 17, after reopening iTunes the ""Sync Podcast subscriptions and settings" had been checked again, so the unchecking did not "stick." I did try to quit and reopen iTunes AFTER unchecking ""Sync Podcast subscriptions and settings" but before restoring the files and the library file to make sure that the unchecking had stuck, and it did. Perhaps the library file saves that setting?

Reply

Answer 2

Rysz

Level 8

44,391 points

Jul 4, 2015 3:21 PM in response to Robert Camner

PPodcast syncing has always been problematic for me. I think the technical term is "won key." What I did notice, is that changing the Settings/Subscriptions on my computer and/or iDevice changes them everywhere. Lesson being, review and set them the same way everywhere.

OTherwise, let Apple know about your issues here: http://www.apple.com/feedback/

Reply

Answer 3

Rysz

Level 8

44,391 points

Jul 4, 2015 3:23 PM in response to Rysz

I forgot to mention... My most common issue is not that Podcasts disappear, but that they get downloaded over and over again. Not sure which is worth ;-/

Reply